Light-driven nanoperiodical modulation of alkaline cation distribution inside sodium silicate glass

Femtosecond laser direct writing in SiO2‐Al2O3 binary glasses and thermal stability of Type II permanent modifications

“…Al 2 O 3 than for 30 mol% Al 2 O 3 in agreement with the reported values of glass melting T m temperatures.This could be attributed to an increase in Al coordination number (4, 5, and 6 fold-coordination25,26,27,28 ), increasing glass network cross-linking density and bond strength. Note that additional measurements of the viscosity-tempertaure dependence would be nice to validate this view.In addition based on nanogratings chemical changes observed in other multicomponent oxide glasses9,45,46 , we suggest that nanogratings in our aluminosilicate samples are made of Al 2 O 3 -rich phase that separates from the SiO 2 -rich matrix phase. Backscattered electron image…”

“…One of the intriguing phenomena induced by the femtosecond (fs) laser pulses is the formation of the polarization-dependent sub-wavelength nanostructures 3 . As opposed to the LIPSS written onto the surface of various materials (e.g., metals, semi-conductors, dielectrics), formation of nanogratings within the bulk has been observed mostly in silicate and germanates glasses with a limited alkali content 4,5,6,7,8,9 . In the case of SiO 2 or GeO 2 glasses, self-organized nanogratings, which are composed of stripe-like regions with oxygen deficiencies including nanovoids 10,11 , are perpendicularly aligned to the laser polarization.…”

Femtosecond laser‐induced birefringent microdomains in sodium‐borate glass for highly secure data storage

“…For a long time, silica glass was the only object for the investigation of the phenomenon of nanogratings. However, studies of the latest decade demonstrated the possibility of the formation of nanogratings in amorphous GeO 2 , 11 and a number of binary glasses of the GeO 2 –SiO 2 , 12 TiO 2 –SiO 2 , 13 Na 2 O–SiO 2 , 14,15 Na 2 O–GeO 2 16, 17 systems. For these glasses with a relatively simple composition, the nanoperiodical structure of the nanogratings is similar to that of the nanogratings forming in silica glass.…”

“…For these glasses with a relatively simple composition, the nanoperiodical structure of the nanogratings is similar to that of the nanogratings forming in silica glass. Nevertheless, the specific features in laser exposure regimes were observed, for example, an increase in the content of alkali oxide in silicate and germanate glasses leads to an exponential increase in the minimum number of pulses required for the rise of form birefringence 14,16 . Moreover, the formation process is accompanied by the diffusion of alkaline cations both to the periphery of the modification region and to the boundaries of nanopores, thus the latter was manifested in the periodic distribution of alkali cations 14,16 .…”

Glass: Home of the Periodic Table

“…According to the latest studies, glass-modifier ions (Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Zr) are most susceptible to migration. When observed in a plane perpendicular to the laser beam, such ions migrate to the periphery of the laser affected zone, while glass-forming ions tend to concentrate in the center (Fernandez et al, 2018;Lotarev et al, 2018). The most promising application of DLW in glasses is multidimensional optical data storage with a high capacity and almost unlimited lifetime.…”